Customer Reviews

Mr. Wolf and the Three Bears

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a fan of Fearnley's Mr. WOLF'S PANCAKES, I was curious to see what would be cooked up in this sequal. This time it's birthday cake! When Mr. Wolf and his Granny host a birthday party for Baby Bear, they plan for a perfect day. Then that rude and naughty Goldilocks shows up. Granny has obviously handled such beastly children before, so this visit is a piece of cake.

Fearnley fans won't be disappointed at the outcome!

Jan Fearnley's humorous and lively books are terrific and this one is no exception. Many modern-day retellings of traditional fairy tales have been sweetened and sanitised to the extent that the impact of the story is lost, along with much of the enjoyment. Jan Fearnley's Mr Wolf books are a cheerful antidote. Mr Wolf is polite and easygoing; he's keen to share and tries his very best to go about things the correct way. The thing is: he IS a wolf. When his neighbours (or in this case Goldilocks) try his patience just that bit too much, his wolfish nature takes over and he can see but one solution. And I think we can all work out what that is! Please note that all this takes place in a beautifully-depicted fairy-tale land, nothing like real life. My boys (aged 2 and 4) loved this book, along with the other two Mr Wolf books, and we're desperate for more. I'm sure Mr Wolf would know how to deal with Hansel and Gretel after they'd eaten too much of the candy house, for instance.

My mother-in-law bought this for our son (now 2) and I just pulled it out last week as he's into "paper" page books now (moving up from the board books). I was stunned to discover in the end that Goldilocks ends up in the pie in the end. I'm not into the Grimm type of story books...so this one will be leaving my son's library before he knows better and gets scared by it. It's the first book I've ever objected to for him. I would pass for any age child.

We borrowed this book from our local library. The colorful cover and illustrations on first glance enticed my 2 and 4 year olds. Upon reading the story at home, however, we found that this book was very violent - it highly suggests that Goldilocks is killed and baked in a pie and then served to the wolf's unwitting party guests. I, as an adult, found the story disturbing. If my children had fully understood the book's implications, they would have had nightmares.

Maybe if your children are older, you will find this book less objectionable. Even so, with all the violence in the real world, do we really need this kind of stuff in children's books - even as dark humor?